P4 Motherboard recommendations

[75475,451]

Hello

My sister is considering buying or having me build her, a new system.
She currently has a Dell Dimension 4200. Here of the specs it's specs...
http://support.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/dim4200/specs.htm#1101572

....it currently has a (Dell) nVidia geForce 2 GTS 32MB, a
SB Live!, 3-port Firewire PCI card, Lucent/Agere Win modem,
40 GB (Seagate or Western Digital) ATA-100 HD, DVD, and slightly broken
but still functional CD-RW.

I haven't been following hardware very closely lately, so I am ignorant
of a lot of the details, which is why ask.

She browses the web, checks email, and plays The Sims!. So I was
thinking that anything over 1.4Ghz and 512MB of DDR RAM would be an
improvement over her current system. But she wants the latest and close
to the greatest. Maybe it will inspire her to do video editing, which
she may have in mind for the future.

She has a Pentium 4 system in mind. So, so far, I have been looking at
motherboards with an i875 or i865 chipset. It needs a memory clock that
can safely match the FSB. I have seen boards that are only spec'd to
take dual channel DDR266 and 333. I want dual channel DDR400.

I would also like it to have gigabit ethernet for the future broadband
revolution, USB 2.0, a good onboard S-ATA controller (I may get a
Seagate 7200.7), and compatibility with future Prescotts.

It does not need:

Over clocking capabilities. (This board will run in spec)
Onboard sound. (We already have a SB Live! 5.1)
A googleplex of USB 2.0 ports. (Four would be enough)
Onboard Firewire IEEE-1394 ports. (We already have a card)

I am hoping that a board without these extra features will be cheaper.
In my hardware searching it seems like a lot of these features are
standard.

http://motherboards.org/ has a review of a new offering from DFI
with Intel chipset. I have also considered Gigabyte, I heard they are
designed with Prescotts in mind. And of course Asus, and Intel made
boards. I am open to any suggestions including changing to an AMD x86-64
system, or going back to a socket A Athlon or socket 478 Celeron. Heck
maybe even go to a different architecture: G5, Itanium, ultra-sparc, AIX
on an R6000 (just kidding about some of those).

Thanks in advance for any replies.

E

 

[Anon]

Hello

My sister is considering buying or having me build her, a new system.
She currently has a Dell Dimension 4200. Here of the specs it's specs...
http://support.jp.dell.com/docs/systems/dim4200/specs.htm#1101572

...it currently has a (Dell) nVidia geForce 2 GTS 32MB, a
SB Live!, 3-port Firewire PCI card, Lucent/Agere Win modem,
40 GB (Seagate or Western Digital) ATA-100 HD, DVD, and slightly broken
but still functional CD-RW.

I haven't been following hardware very closely lately, so I am ignorant
of a lot of the details, which is why ask.

She browses the web, checks email, and plays The Sims!. So I was
thinking that anything over 1.4Ghz and 512MB of DDR RAM would be an
improvement over her current system. But she wants the latest and close
to the greatest. Maybe it will inspire her to do video editing, which
she may have in mind for the future.

AFAIK, most serious video editing is done on MACS. You need to find out how
serious your sister is about video editing, and if it will be done AT ALL
with her next system. If so, then what motherboard is best for a P4 might
be information that you don't even need to consider.

But, if you are building a P4 right now, I think your best bet for a
high-end system would probably be Intel's own D875PBZLK. It has all the
features you want, including dual channel DDR400, SATA, and gigabit LAN.
For a high-end board, it's not unreasonably priced either. -Dave

 

[75475,451]

AFAIK, most serious video editing is done on MACS. You need to find out how
serious your sister is about video editing, and if it will be done AT ALL
with her next system. If so, then what motherboard is best for a P4 might
be information that you don't even need to consider.

But, if you are building a P4 right now, I think your best bet for a
high-end system would probably be Intel's own D875PBZLK. It has all the
features you want, including dual channel DDR400, SATA, and gigabit LAN.
For a high-end board, it's not unreasonably priced either. -Dave

Thanks, I looked it up on Pricewatch and Froogle. Seems to be about
what I had in mind. I'll definately take it into consideration.

E

 

[Wooducoodu]

unless you plan to use ECC memory the 875p boards are a waste of money, go
for the 865pe. the asus p4p800s, albatron px865pe pros, msi 865pe neos and
aopen ax4spes are good boards.

 

[Stacey]

Hello

But she wants the latest and close
to the greatest. Maybe it will inspire her to do video editing, which
she may have in mind for the future.

P4P800 standard with vega video is a great platform for video editing.

 

[Larry]

Gigabyte GA-8IK1100